AndyP & Lenore
20th October 2015, 01:00 AM
I've posted about all this on Facebook but I thought I should share this experience here for those not on our Facebook group.
About 8 weeks ago we started noticing a slight rattle from behind the dash Of our Countryman JCW. We just figured it was the usual 'MINI rattle' so just turned up the radio to drown it out. But it started to get worse and became a very slight knock. It also seemed to get worse when moving from engine idle to putting it into 'drive'. It's an auto box. We were due to go on holiday in another car for the second week in September so booked it in to Vardy in Edinburgh for them to have a look at when we got back.
So first Monday in October and we took it up to Vardy and on the way up we noticed the noise got very loud and it turned into a noticeable shudder along with loss of power if we put the car under load - overtaking. So we ended up cruising up to Vardy with Lenore uncharacteristically driving like miss daisy for half the journey.
Vardy initially thought it was the air con condenser so they replaced that but that wasn't the problem. They then took 10'days to diagnose the fault eventually using electronic stethoscopes on the enhpgine housing to try and figure out what had gone wrong inside, sending reports back to MINI for their input.
Eventually they reckoned the cam shaft was buggered. Either bent or off kilter or something had gone very very wrong with it. So the decision was taken to replace the entire engine.
Replacement engine was on back order so it was another 10'days before we got our car back but it's been fine since.
So the next time you detect a slight rattle from your dash it may not just be the usual MINI dash rattle, it could be your camshaft is shafted. :sad:
Andy.
About 8 weeks ago we started noticing a slight rattle from behind the dash Of our Countryman JCW. We just figured it was the usual 'MINI rattle' so just turned up the radio to drown it out. But it started to get worse and became a very slight knock. It also seemed to get worse when moving from engine idle to putting it into 'drive'. It's an auto box. We were due to go on holiday in another car for the second week in September so booked it in to Vardy in Edinburgh for them to have a look at when we got back.
So first Monday in October and we took it up to Vardy and on the way up we noticed the noise got very loud and it turned into a noticeable shudder along with loss of power if we put the car under load - overtaking. So we ended up cruising up to Vardy with Lenore uncharacteristically driving like miss daisy for half the journey.
Vardy initially thought it was the air con condenser so they replaced that but that wasn't the problem. They then took 10'days to diagnose the fault eventually using electronic stethoscopes on the enhpgine housing to try and figure out what had gone wrong inside, sending reports back to MINI for their input.
Eventually they reckoned the cam shaft was buggered. Either bent or off kilter or something had gone very very wrong with it. So the decision was taken to replace the entire engine.
Replacement engine was on back order so it was another 10'days before we got our car back but it's been fine since.
So the next time you detect a slight rattle from your dash it may not just be the usual MINI dash rattle, it could be your camshaft is shafted. :sad:
Andy.